Sparke Helmore Law Graduate part of award-winning team at Global Legal Hackathon

Jessica has worked in marketing and communications for professional services firms for four years. She specialises in corporate and internal communications.

Congratulations to Sparke Helmore Lawyers Law Graduate Jeanette Zhang who was part of a team of four that received the Global Impact Award at the Global Legal Hackathon held over the weekend.

Participants from law schools, government, law firms, in-house departments and legal technology companies meet at the Hackathon annually to rapidly innovate and develop solutions to improve the legal industry worldwide.

Jeanette competed in the Hackathon with Jacob Lancaster, Olga Kubyk and Ravi Nayyar. The team received the Award for their solution, which addresses the disclosure of sensitive medical data for the benefit of patients investigating clinical trials, while preventing the mishandling of that data.

The team came up with a platform called "HealthMatch" to help patients easily find clinical trials run by researchers who have been thoroughly vetted. The underlying blockchain technology stores patient data immutably, records patients' consent to the disclosure of selected data, and allows clinicians to provide certified proof showing data was obtained in a way that complies with the Australian Privacy Principles.

"Well done to Jeanette and the team for devising such an innovative solution to a very real problem," said Jeanette's Managing Partner, Richard Chew, from Sparke Helmore's Intellectual Property & Technology team. "It's fantastic to see our graduates engaging in unique opportunities to use technology to overcome legal challenges and collaborating with others in the industry—and that such ingenuity is recognised."

About Sparke Helmore

Sparke Helmore Lawyers is a firm with more than 750 people working from eight offices across Australia, serving the needs of the insurance, government, financial services, technology, mining, construction and property sectors. Our expertise spans corporate and commercial to construction, workplace to insurance, IP to IPOs, mining to manufacturing, and property to procurement.